Chapter 10, Managing Styles, Formats, and Colors

Chapter 10, Managing Styles, Formats, and Colors

As a shape developer, you apply styles to the shapes you draw to ensure consistency. You also define the styles and custom options, such as custom fill patterns, that will appear in the templates you create for your users. Styles in Microsoft® Visio® work a little differently from styles you might have used in other software, such as word-processing or spreadsheet programs. In Visio, you can define styles that apply formatting attributes to text, lines, and fills all at once. Or, you can define styles that apply formatting to text only, to lines only, to fills only, or to any combination of the three.

This chapter explains how to apply and create styles when you're working with shapes; provides guidelines for designing the styles that appear in your templates; explains how to change formatting attributes of the masters you work with and how to protect the styles of the masters you create; and describes how to create custom line patterns, fill patterns, and line ends that users can apply just like in any Visio format.

In this chapter…

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa200992(v=office.10).aspx Working with Styles in the Drawing Page

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa200993(v=office.10).aspx Guidelines for Applying Styles to Shapes

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa200994(v=office.10).aspx Using Styles in Stencils and Templates

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa200995(v=office.10).aspx Protecting Local Shape Formats

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa200996(v=office.10).aspx Managing Color in Styles, Shapes, and Files

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa200997(v=office.10).aspx Custom Patterns